Monday, May 15, 2006

San Paulo prison riots

Updated Tuesday May 16

Prisoners hold a guard hostage with a knife at the Campo Mourao, in Parana, Brazil, on Monday, May 15, 2006. Masked men attacked bars, banks and police stations with machine guns. Gangs set buses on fire. Inmates at dozens of prisons took guards hostage in an unprecedented four-day wave of violence around South America's largest city that left more than 80 dead by Monday. (AP Photo/Dirceu Portugal-AGENCIA ESTADO)

Inmates sit at the windows of their jail cells at Guarulhos prison in Sao Paulo, May 15, 2006. Around 29 prison riots are going on around Sao Paulo state.

Burning Bus of the day

Members of the First Capital Command, known by its Portuguese initials PCC, riot on top of the Junqueiropolis penitentiary in Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Sunday, May 14, 2006. The signs read: 'PCC, peace, justice and liberty,' left, and 'against oppression,' right. (AP Photo/Alex Silva, Agencia Estado)

A police officer stands near a police station destroyed by a bomb attack in Fransisco Morato, about 50 km (31 miles) northeast from Sao Paulo, Brazil May 14, 2006. At least 52 people, including 35 police officers, have been killed after a second night of organized gang attacks on police stations across the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, officials said REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker.

you won't believe it. the leaders of the pcc gang where mad because they were tranfered to prisons with no tv. remember that we are in world cup mode rigth now in brazil, and the mere thought of having no tv these days is the worst possible torture. the riots were the answer.

Since its inception, PCC has been responsible for several criminal activities such as prison breaks, prison riots, drug trafficking, highway robbery and terrorist activities.

History

PCC was founded on August 31, 1993, by eight prisoners at TaubatéPenitentiary, called Piranhão (Big Piranha) in the state of São Paulo. At the time this was the safest jail in the state.

The group got together during a Football game. When prisoners weretransferred from the city of São Paulo to the Piranhão as punishment for bad behavior, they decided to name their football team the CapitalCommand.

PCC, which was also formerly referred to as the Party of Crime, and as 15.3.3 (following the order of the letters "P" and "C" in the former Brazilian alphabet), was founded with a clear political agenda, aiming to "fight the oppression inside the São Paulo penitentiary system" and to "avenge the death of 111 prisoners", victims of the October 2, 1992 Carandiru Massacre, when the São Paulo State Military Police stormed the now extinct Casa de Detenção (a very large prison) and killed prisonersfrom its 9th pavillion in the process.

The group made use of the Chinese yin yang symbol as their emblem, saying it represented "a way to balance good and evil with wisdom".

In February 2001, Idemir "Sombra" (Shadow) Carlos Ambrósio became the most prominent leader of the organization when he coordinated, by cell phone, simultaneous rebellions in 29 São Paulo state prisons, in which 16 prisoners were killed. "Sombra", also referred to as "father", was beaten to death on the Piranhão five months later by five members of the criminal faction in an internal struggle for the general command of the PCC. The PCC was led by "Geleião" and "Cesinha", responsible for the alliance withanother criminal organization, Rio de Janeiro's Comando Vermelho. Geleião and Cesinha, from the Bangú Penitentiary where they were held,went on to coordinate violent attacks against public buildings. Considered radicals by another moderate current of the PCC, they used terrorism to intimidate authorities of the prison system and were withdrawn from leadership in November 2002, when the leadership was taken by the current leader of the organization Marcos "Marcola" Willians Herbas Camacho. After he took over, the organization put a death bounty on Geleião and Cesinha,on the counts of having testified to the police and creating the TerceiroComando da Capital (Third Capital Command, TCC).

Under the leadership of Marcola, also known as "Playboy," currentlydetained for bank robbery, the PCC took part in the March 2003 murder of Judge Antônio José Machado Dias, who ran the Penitentiary Readaptation Center (CRP) from Presidente Bernardes, currently Brazil's most strict supermax-style prison. The PCC also announced its objective to use prison uprisings as a way to demoralize the government and to destroy the CRP.

The organization is partly funded by its members, called "brothers." Theyare required to pay a monthly fee of R$50.00 (about US $23) while in prison, or R$500.00 (about US $230) if they are outside of it. The moneyis used to buy weapons and drugs, and also to finance operations to bail out prisoners connected to the organization. In order to become a member of the PCC, the prospective member needs to be formally introduced by another regular member, taking an oath to follow its 16-clause statute.

If they are marxists they must be idiotmarxists. Landing themselves in jail time after time. They can hardly overthrow the Brasilian state from behind bars. Well, drop the marxist part. They are just idiots.